Telegraph Island

Telegraph Island (also known as Arabic: جزيرة تليغراف, Jazīrat al Maqlab, and Şağīr) is located in the Elphinstone Inlet or Khor Ash Sham, the inner inlet of Khasab Bay, less than 400 meters off the shore of the Musandam Peninsula, and less than 500 meters south of much larger but also much lesser known Sham Island, both of which are parts of the Sultanate of Oman. It is 160 meters long, and up to 90 meters wide, yielding an area of 1.1 hectares. The name as "Telegraph" comes from the telegraph-cable repeater station built on the island in 1864.

The inlet at the island is surrounded by high mountains, with notable geology in the rock strata which dip downwards under the immense pressures caused by the Arabian tectonic plate meeting (and subducting beneath) the Eurasian Plate. In the 19th century, it was the location of a British repeater station used to boost telegraphic messages along the Persian Gulf submarine cable (see below), which was part of the London to Karachi telegraphic cable. It was not an easy posting for the operators, with the severe summer heat and hostility of local tribes making life extremely uncomfortable. Because of this, the island is, according to some travel agents and journalists, where the expression "go round the bend" comes from, a reference to the heat making British officers desperate to return to civilisation, which meant a voyage around the bend in the Strait of Hormuz back to India.

Today, Telegraph Island is a reminder of the British Empire. Abandoned in the mid-1870s, the island has remained deserted and only the ruins of the repeater station and the operators' quarters can be seen. Tourism has grown in the Persian Gulf region, so the island is regularly visited by dhows carrying tourists to view the ruins and to fish and snorkel in the waters around it.

Telegraph Island is situated in a fjord at the northern end of the Musandam Peninsula, which forms part of the Oman mountain range described by the geologist George Martin Lees as "projecting like a spur into the vitals of Persia" (today's Iran). Being part of the edge of the Arabian tectonic plate, the rock stata are subjected to massive pressure as the plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate. The result is that Musandam is being pushed downwards at approximately 6 mm (0.24 in) per year at its northernmost point, with spectacular results. Fresh-water springs that once flowed over the land may have become submerged, possibly giving rise to stories of sailors diving into the sea to collect fresh water in leather bags.

The expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century required a fast and reliable system of communication to enable the British government in London to issue instructions and receive information quickly. The Indian Mutiny of 1857, followed by the annexation of India in 1858, emphasised this need. By 1856, cables had been laid linking Britain with North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. A scheme to lay a cable through Mesopotamia to the head of the Persian Gulf failed when the Turks refused to grant permission.

By 1858, the British government, through grants and subsidies, was actively encouraging schemes to establish a telegraphic link between Britain and India. In 1859, the Red Sea Telegraph Company laid a submarine cable through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to Bombay. It became apparent that the cable was not sufficiently robust to withstand the conditions, and that too little slack had been built into the cable, leading to breaks in the line. The cable was a failure, and no messages were passed between London and Bombay.

The British government created the Indo-European Telegraph Department in 1862 to connect a telegraphic link between Karachi and lines in the Ottoman Empire. It planned to run the cable along the Makran coast between Fao, Bushire, and Gwadar. A number of local agreements were made with tribal leaders along the proposed route and a cable laid from Karachi as far as Gwadar. However, the Persian government declined to grant permission to extend the line to Ottoman territory. Attention was focused on the Persian Gulf and, following a report by Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Stewart, a decision was taken to lay a cable to Musandam from Gwadar.

In 1864 the Government of India contracted the Gutta Percha Company to manufacture the core. Henley's Telegraph Works was to construct the armouring, and Sir Charles Bright was appointed the consulting engineer. Because telegraph signals tended to fade over distance, it was necessary to build a series of repeater stations along the cable route to boost them, hence the decision to build a repeater station at Musandam. The cable was landed on a small rocky island in the Elphinstone Inlet (Khor Ash Sham) of the Musandam Peninsula. Hence this island became known as Telegraph Island. A repeater station was built on the island, which was about a mile offshore, because of fears about the volatile tribes on the mainland, primarily the Zahuriyeen tribe, who lived on the nearby Maqtab Isthmus. The work of laying the Gwadar to Musandam section took a month to complete.